Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatuses for the magnetic treatment of fluids, particularly water, to reduce particulate contamination.
Background Art
Water, while chemically neutral, is one of the best known solvents. It has the inherent capability to entrap other substances by clustering water molecules around non-water particles. These are known as conglomerations or complexes. The capability of water to entrap substances results in its high mineral content and the amount of dissolved minerals being carried by water determines its hardness.
When water evaporates, the dissolved minerals become over concentrated and begin crystallizing. Crystallization also occurs when the solubility of the minerals in the water decreases. The result of crystallization is sediment forming on the walls of the container holding the water.
Increased amounts of dissolved minerals make water more viscous and less able to penetrate soils and enter the pores and capillaries of plants. Thus, higher amounts of water are needed for crop irrigation and increased amounts of fertilizer are required to compensate for the reduced capacity of plants to hydrate which lowers the bio-availability of oxygen and nutrients.
Magnetic treatment of water has been shown to break the water-particulate complexes. The freed particulate molecules then act as bonding centers and form microcrystals. This process converts water saturated with dissolved minerals into a mixture of solid microcrystals and clean water. When this mixture of purified water and microcrystals flows past other minerals it is capable of dissolving additional minerals. This process reduces or eliminates scaling in pipes and equipment and can protect against corrosion.
Heretofore, mechanisms for magnetically treating water have involved a complex of multiple magnetic treatment units retained in a plurality of apertures on a baffle plate. Each treatment unit has had a limited capacity for holding magnets, if increased levels of dissolved solids are present in water or other fluids to be treated, individual units known in the prior art must be individually installed in a longitudinal series. Turbulence induced in the flow as fluids pass through a magnetic treatment device increase precipitation of scale, but prior art devices have been limited in their ability to induce turbulence in the flow.
There is, therefore, a need for a magnetic treatment apparatus that can be manufactured inexpensively, that is less easy to install, that has the capability of holding more magnets in order to subject the water being treated to higher amounts of magnetic forces for longer periods of time, and that can induce turbulence into the fluid as it flows through the apparatus.